


Jason's Revenge

by Hobbit_Riddlebird



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Titans (TV 2018), Under the Red Hood
Genre: Batbrothers (DCU), Gen, Not Canon Compliant, Not Shippy, POV Alternating, POV Multiple, Prologue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:34:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23066329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hobbit_Riddlebird/pseuds/Hobbit_Riddlebird
Summary: Jason Todd is back in Gotham and visits members of the Bat Family.
Relationships: Alfred Pennyworth & Jason Todd, Barbara Gordon & Jason Todd, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd, Jason Todd & Damian Wayne, Tim Drake & Jason Todd
Comments: 10
Kudos: 78





	Jason's Revenge

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Merryandrew](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merryandrew/gifts).



> This fic is a standalone prologue to another fic I am planning to write for a friend. 
> 
> This is a non shippy fic and I do not ship the Batfamily together. 
> 
> Merry: I hope you don't mind that I tagged you with this! Yes. I was your anon (as you probably already guessed) this isn't the fic I promised you (not yet) but this is the prologue. 
> 
> :)

Dick Grayson walked up the unsteady stairs of the apartment carefully alert to his surroundings but not looking any of the tenants directly in the eye. He felt eyes on him though, curious, hostile, or indifferent. He was glad he had the foresight to keep the uniform at his home. This was not the sort of neighborhood that looked kindly to police officers. 

Not that he could blame them. Blüdhaven's police force did not have the best reputation for police conduct, which was why he had chosen it as his city of operations, a decision he was starting to have second doubts about.

You could always run back to Father and admit defeat, he thought not for the first time. And hear the inevitable 'I told you so' from the old man? Never. Whatever happened here he would never go back to him, and all that implied. 

He got to the top floor, although it was hardly a penthouse suite. Trash littered the floor, he even saw syringe needles, and what he hoped was a rat scurry past. If not a rat it was the biggest cockroach he had ever seen. And the smell was unpleasant, a mix of filth and unclean bodies living together in tight quarters.

Dick had not been born into wealth like his adopted father had been. The circus knew something of living from city to city. He knew something about going to bed hungry. He knew something about living without breathing space. He knew something about the smell of poverty. And he knew better than to judge. But he did and he hated that he did. 

Room C4 the text had said. C4 Saturday 6:45 a.m. (with coordinates to this apartment slums) J. And nothing else. The text had been from an unknown number but he knew who it had come from just the same.

Jason Todd. Former Robin. Former adopted son of Gotham's own Bruce Wayne. Dick's former brother. Formerly deceased. 

He had left Gotham after his resurrection to find himself, he had told Dick before leaving. And now that he was back, Dick hoped he had found what he was looking for. 

Dick checked his wristwatch, it was 6:45 a.m. on the dot. He knocked on the door. 

Not for the first time it crossed his mind that this could be a trap. But if he couldn't trust his own brother, who could he trust, he asked. He trusted Jason because the alternative was unthinkable. 

The door swung open revealing Jason. He was still wearing the Red Hood costume without the red hood itself. His face seemed thinner than it had been since he last saw him, than he remembered, but he wasn't the boy who had fallen as Robin anymore. The streak of bone white in his hair as though he had been touched by Death themself marked him.

"Jay," he breathed. Jaybird. He longed to grab the younger man into a tight hug. 

"It's Jason. Or Todd. Jay was killed by the Joker and buried in the Wayne family plot," he moved aside to let Dick inside the apartment. "But I did not ask you here to speak of him." 

Jaybird had always been the happiest of them. The only one that could make even Batman smile, Dick used to joke. 

"This place is... interesting," he tried smalltalk. 

"This place is a dump," Jason laughed. "But it's real. It's honest. This is real life, Dick. Not that ivory tower in Gotham. You're right, this place is interesting. These people are interesting and they don't have to wear a mask to be so." 

Jason had always had something of a philosophical side and he had been captain of his debate team for good reason. But since coming back he used his words like poisoned barbs to get under the skin of his opponents. Dick feared Jason had become a zealot. 

"Says the man that wears a red hood," he pointed out. 

"We are not of them, Dick," Jason moved to circle him. "Batman or Joker, do you believe it matters to those out there? Robin or Harlequinn, are we so different?" 

"Bruce is a good person," he said defensively. Despite any issues he may have with his adopted father he knew this fact to be true. 

"Bruce is a hypocrite," Jason's anger slipped out. "He plays a game with his rogues and Gotham loses. He is not the solution to Gotham's corruption, he is the cause." 

Dick had had the same argument with Bruce but hearing Jason talk about their father in such a way made him ashamed to be standing here. 

"What do you want from me, Jason?" he longed to get out of this place and whatever it was his brother had turned into. 

"You know it yourself, stop lying to yourself," Jason stopped in front of him, when had the junior Robin become taller than the senior, he wondered. "You ran away from him, didn't you? Traded a Robin suit for a policeman's uniform. You tell yourself you're doing good, the right way. But who is paying for that skyrise apartment, that nice sports car? You're still his, Dick. And all he has to do is," he snapped his finger, it sounds like a gunshot, "and you'll come running back to him." 

Jason had obviously followed him before this meeting, he realized. 

"You have a funny way of asking me for a favor, Jason," Dick headed back to the door. "I'm not going to just stand here and be insulted." 

Maybe Barbara Gordon was right, Jason Todd was too far gone now. Best to leave him buried in Gotham. 

"I thought of any of them it would be you that would understand," Jason looked at him as though he had disappointed him. "But I guess you're just as bad as he is." 

"I will never join you in your crusade against Batman, Jay," Dick turned around to face his brother. "Batman might not be the perfect solution but it's better than the alternative." And he could never betray their father, no matter the bad blood between them. 

"Not everything is about Batman," Jason grabbed a newspaper off the sofa and handed it roughly to him. "This is about taking back Gotham." 

Dick unfolded the paper and looked down. 

'Three Wealthiest Men of Gotham' the headline read with three pictures below it, the first was Bruce Wayne, then Oswald Cobblepot, and lastly Roman Sionis. 

"What is this?" Dick lifted the paper.

"These are the pillars of Gotham's elite," Jason pointed at the article. "Take these three men down and Gotham will fall." 

Jason was insane, he had to be. 

"I will not help you take down Bruce," he shoved the paper back at Jason. "I will not just stand by and let you do this, Jason." 

"Are you going to go running to Daddy?" Jason taunted with a strange look on his face, one part betrayed hurt and part hostility. 

"No," he shook his head. If there was a code between the former and current Robins it was that they stuck together even when that meant going against the Bat himself. And he wouldn't betray that code despite all that Jason had done, he was still his brother. "But if you know what's good for you, stay away from Gotham, get far away and start again." 

"I can't do that, Gotham is in all of us, it's why he chose us isn't it?" Jason smiled for the first time since Dick's arrival, it was a ghost of a smile. "Take my warning, don't try to stop me from my mission." 

"Good bye, Jason," he said. "I would tell you good luck but," he shrugged. "Stay safe," he said instead. He shook his brother's hand and pulled him in for a quick brotherly kiss on the cheek. It felt as though he was saying good bye to his brother, and this time it would be final. "And don't get yourself killed." 

Dick walked away and forced himself not to look back.

* * *

Tim Drake often found solace in the Wayne Crypts. Bruce and Damian were yelling at each other over something reckless and dangerous the youngest Robin had done. And Tim didn't wait around to find out what, it didn't matter anyway, it never did. But at least it was quiet here. 

He passed by the tombs of Bruce's grandparents of various degrees and then his parents. When Tim had first arrived at the Manor and found this place he had matched up the portraits hanging on the walls to the tombs below them. And in a way the family history of the Wayne's felt like his own. But the tomb he sought was in the back and was the only one with a plaque that was empty. 

'Jason "Jay" Todd Beloved Son and Brother and Jay-bird.' The plaque read. 

Tim had not met Jason before his death but he often visited his predecessor and he supposed it was silly to still visit the tomb after his resurrection but it had become a comforting habit. What he did not expect to find was the man himself standing in front of his own tomb, alive. 

"Red Hood," he breathed , he felt he had not earned the right to call him by the name on the tomb. Jason was wearing the full getup with the blood red face mask and hood that gave him his moniker.

"The spare Robin," Jason turned around, his eyes above the mask were hard. "Come to visit your future tomb, Timmy?" 

The first time Tim had seen the former Robin's empty tomb he had felt as though he was looking at his own future tomb. And in a way, he supposed he was. The difference was it didn't bother him. 

"Naw," he pointed to the corner above. "Always wanted the top bunk bed." 

"You shouldn't be down here," Jason was hiding something behind his back. "I have no issue with you." 

Red Hood didn't scare him, he supposed maybe he should. Sometimes he thought Bruce was afraid of him, or maybe for him it was hard to tell. It was strange, but Tim felt a connection to the second Robin that he did not with Dick or Damian. 

"What are you doing here?" Tim was pretty sure Bruce didn't even know Jason was back in Gotham much less on the grounds. He figured he had three options, try and stall him until someone came to look for him, not likely, runaway and get to Bruce before Red Hood stopped him, which wouldn't take long he wasn't too proud to admit, or stall him and find out why he was here. 

"Bruce doesn't know you're down here, does he?" Jason didn't even move, Tim wasn't a threat to him and they both knew it. "Nor does he care. He has a new Robin now, isn't that right? Dick is the favorite. I'm the lost Robin. Damian is the heir. But what does that make you? You were nothing but the spare and now you're not even needed." 

"You're wrong," Tim defied him. 

"He didn't even choose you," Jason leaned forward. "You forced your way into this family. You're a parasite. A pest. No, a weed. You don't belong here and deep down you know it." 

Maybe at one time he would believe that but not anymore. And certainly not from Red Hood. 

"I'm not the one buried in the crypt," he blurted out before he could stop himself. 

Jason laughed, the sound echoed along the stone walls. "Why does he keep this empty shrine to a dead boy?" 

"He missed you," Tim told him. He did not tell him of Bruce's insomnia or his nightmares when he did manage to sleep in the years after his second Robin's death. 

"These were fresh a few days ago," he ripped the drying flowers from the crypt and tossed them on the floor. "Why leave flowers on an empty tomb?" 

"He says... he will continue to mourn his son until his son returns to him," Tim had to stop himself from picking the flowers up and replacing them. 

"He is a sentimental stubborn old fool," Jason turned around and placed something on the tomb. "I am never coming back and I am never going back into this tomb." 

"What are you doing?" he asked, but he knew. As a Robin he knew what an explosive device looked like. 

"You should leave now," Jason said over his shoulder. "I wouldn't want you to be caught in the blast." 

"You can't," he readied himself for battle. "Bruce's parents are down here, I can't let you do this." 

"I wonder what Mr. and Mrs. Wayne would think of all that has been done in their name, perhaps they would welcome the peace," Jason paused in his work. "However I have nothing against them. Mine is the only tomb that will be destroyed in the blast. Go on, go up, and pretend you never saw me." 

"I won't go," Tim stood his ground. 

"Suit yourself, maybe you want to trade one dead boy with another," he pushed the button. "Three... Two... One." 

Red Hood dragged Tim out and left him coughing on the ground at the entrance. But by the time he had caught his breath Jason was gone again. 

* * *

Damian did not like Jason. He was not as clever as Dick and neither was he as smart as Tim. And he was definitely no match for himself. He did not see what Father had seen in him. He didn't even notice that he was being followed-

Red Hood snuck up behind him and grabbed his arm behind his back. 

"Ow," Damian complained.

"Why were you following me?" He lifted Damian higher, his feet dangled over the dark street. 

"You're trying to kill Father," Damian glared down at him. "I had to confirm if you were worthy." 

"And?" Red Hood seemed amused, which pissed Damian off even more than he already was. 

"You're not worthy to fight Ace!," Damian struggled. "You didn't even know I've been following you since four blocks back."

"I caught you, didn't I?" Jason pulled him closer. "Batman," he cursed. "You look just like him, did he finally give up and clone himself? It's what he's always wanted in a Robin." 

"Let me go," Damian kicked at the bigger and older man. "As the heir to the Wayne family Father will come after you. You'll regret this." 

"You are his heir," Jason laughed. "And you fell into my trap. Father refused to kill Joker for the death of a Robin, will he honor his code if I kill his one true son? I'm curious." 

"You're not going to kill me," Damian tried to bit Jason's hand. "Grayson said there's honor among Robins. Robins do not harm each other." 

"I am no longer a Robin, little Robin," Jason slipped his mask off with the hand not holding Damian. "And you are no mere Robin, you are also part Bat." 

Damian just needed to get down and then he could take him. Jason might be taller and bigger but size wasn't everything. He would just go down harder. 

"If anyone is going to kill Father it's going to be me," Damian yelled and stomped down on Jason's foot. "You are not worthy!" 

Jason dropped him, and Damian landed on his ass. 

"You're lucky I have no use for you," Jason walked away. "Don't let me catch you following me again, little Robin." 

Damian stood up readying for battle but Red Hood had completely disappeared. 

He really hated Jason Todd. 

* * *

Barbara Gordon knew she should not have come but she couldn't resist the intel she would gather from the meeting. 

Jason Todd had returned to Gotham and she intended to find out why. But she had left word for her father just in case, she wasn't stupid. 

The abandoned hotel was wheelchair accessible which came as a pleasant surprise and she wondered if Jason had picked it as the meeting spot for that reason. Before his death he had always been the thoughtful one of the Wayne brothers. 

She wheeled through the lobby to the gutted dining room. The hotel was owned by Wayne Enterprises and had been destroyed in a fight between the Joker and Riddler, and for reasons unknown Bruce had never remodeled or knocked the building down. Knowing Bruce the building stood as a reminder of... something. Bruce did like his reminders. 

As for Barbara? She believed in rolling forward and not looking back which she did. 

She found Jason in the dining hall leaning back against one of the tables still standing. He had worn civilian clothes for the meeting, all black with a red hoodie. She smiled to herself, the Wayne boys did like their themes, she thought. 

"Welcome home, Jason," she wheeled to a stop. 

"This isn't a homecoming, BG," he used his old nickname for her, she had missed that. "Do you have it?" 

"Not even a greeting?" Barbara shook her head playfully at him. "Come give me a hug, Jason. I would come to you but you've gotten too big for me." 

"I'm not that little boy that used to sit in your lap anymore," Jason came forward and awkwardly got down to her level to allow her to hug him. 

"Good," she laughed and held him tight. "I don't think my lap could take it anymore. None of us are the same anymore, Jason. Including Bruce, you can't avoid him forever." 

Jason stood up and moved away from her chair, she had lost the moment by mentioning Bruce, she realized too late. "How are you doing?" He did not look at the chair, he looked everywhere but at the chair, she had gotten good at noticing that. 

"Good, Jason," she kept using his given name hoping to reach him. "It's a new chair, Wayne tech at its finest, with help from the Oracle of course." 

"Trying to buy himself out of the guilt of putting you in that thing," Jason made a fist. 

"What happened to me wasn't Bruce's fault, Jason," she told him, despite Bruce trying to make it about himself. Bruce had to learn not everything was about him.

"Everything Joker does is about Batman," Jason paced around her chair. "You know that as well as I do. We don't even matter to that freak. We were collateral damage because of our relationship with the Bat." 

Barbara turned the chair around, she hated having anyone behind her. 

"Doesn't it bother you? Joker violated you, he broke you, he put you in that chair, and Bruce just let's him go," Jason punched the wall. "If Bruce had killed him after I was murdered by that psychopathic clown you wouldn't be stuck in that chair. Bruce is as much to blame as Joker, Batman is such as much of a danger to Gotham than Joker or Riddler." 

Barbara had heard such arguments before, even from her own father. She did not agree with them. 

"First of all," she leaned forward in the chair. "I am not broken, not in mind or body. Second of all I am not stuck in this chair any more than you are stuck by your two legs, Jason Todd," she would be the first to admit it had not always been that easy but she had come a long way and she wasn't going to roll backwards now. "And thirdly, I am in charge of my destiny. Not Bruce. Not Batman. Not Joker. Not even my father. Me. And I won't take pity from anyone, much less you. If Joker broke either of us, it's you Red Hood." 

Barbara hated that there were tears in her eyes after her outburst. 

"You're wrong," Jason turned his back on her. "Joker didn't break me, he made me stronger. Strong enough to do what he never could," he turned back around, his mask in place. "Did you bring the file?" 

"Here it is," she tossed the folder on the table next to him. "Take my advice, walk away from this, Jason." 

"It's too late now," he sounded resigned, almost sad even. He grabbed the folder and opened it.

She wished she could read his face as he read the contents but with the mask in place it was nearly impossible. She could read his body language though, the way his back stiffened, the way his shoulders tensed, and the way his hands tightened around the folder. 

"Is this accurate?" He finally looked down at her, tears in his unnaturally bright eyes. 

"Yes," she reached for his hand. "I'm so sorry, Jason." 

"Why have you given me this?" He lifted the folder. "You had to know I'll use this. You would betray Bruce, your father, by giving me this?" 

"You deserve to know the truth of what happened to your father, your birth father, Jason," Barbara turned her chair to leave. "My loyalty is to truth, as Oracle I do not take sides, and now that my work is done I will leave you to do what you must." 

Barbara left him standing there, she had what she had come for.

* * *

Alfred walked along the courtyard at night. Bruce was away on League business and Tim and Damian were training down in the Batcave. He had made sure they would be alone. 

He stopped walking and looked up right at Jason's hiding spot. "I know you are up there Master Jason, or have you forgotten I know all your hiding spots?" As a boy Jason was constantly getting out of bed after lights out, it had become something of a game of hide and seek between them. He missed that boy.

Jason jumped down. "I'm not here to do you harm." 

"I would never presume you were," Alfred pointed the torch towards him. "I can assume it was you that left the note." The note had simply stated where and when to meet.

"I wanted to see you," Jason came out into the light. "You're going to start hearing things about me. Bad things. Some will be true, others false. But I want you to know not everything is as it seems. What I am doing is for the good of Gotham." 

Alfred sighed. "I have one loyalty and that is to the Wayne family, Master Jason," he raised the torch towards his face. "I care not what happens to Gotham." 

He had promised Mr. and Mrs. Wayne to look after their son not all of Gotham. It just so happened their son had made Gotham his responsibility. 

"Did you know about my father, Alfred? My real father. Did you know that he was an informant for the GCPD?" Jason placed his hand over his face to shield himself from the light. 

"I did," he answered truthfully. He also knew that his father was a very desperate man, like his son. 

"Did you know he was killed by Penguin after being picked up and let go by Batman?" Jason stepped forward threateningly, but Alfred knew he had nothing to fear from him. I'm many ways he was nothing but the scared little boy that Bruce had first brought home so many years ago now. 

He also knew that this would drive the young man away from his adopted family for good. 

"Yes," he admitted sadly. "I knew." 

"All that time, my father's executioner took me in, I slept in a bed provided by him every night. I helped him to take down men like my father," he moved away from the light. "All that time and you knew?" 

"Bruce wanted to make amends for what he inadvertently did to your father," he left the light of the torch on the young man's feet. "When he caught you stealing his hubcaps he considered it a sign." 

"To make me like him!" 

"To give your life purpose, Jason," he said to him. He could have told him that his birth father was a double agent for both Penguin and the GCPD, that he was hardly the innocent victim Jason imagined him to be, but he knew he wouldn't hear even if he did. 

"I have found my purpose," Jason stepped back into the shadows. "Oswald Cobblepot, Bruce Wayne, and Jim Gordon are responsible for my father's murder. And they will pay." 

"Good bye, Alfred, I fear it will be some time before we see each other again," he disappeared into the night and was gone. 

Alfred waited a few minutes, long enough to make sure he was truly gone before heading back into the manor. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
